{"quotes":[{"text":"The pleasure or the benefit that the object of our deed derives from it is every now and then greater or even more important than the one we derive from the deed.","author":"Mokokoma Mokhonoana","tags":["advantage","altruism","benefit","charity","compassion","empathy","gene","genes","genie","ghandi","humanity","humor","humour","mahatma-ghandi","mandela","mercy","mother-teresa","nelson-mandela","object","philosopher","philosophy","pleasure","satire","satirist","selfish","selfishness","selfless","selflessness","social-criticism","sympathy","teresa","unselfish","unselfishness"],"id":41834,"author_id":"Mokokoma+Mokhonoana"},{"text":"Every single good person is a good person for their own sake, not for the sake of humanity, not even for the sake of another human being.","author":"Mokokoma Mokhonoana","tags":["altruism","charity","compassion","empathy","gene","genes","genie","ghandi","good","humanity","humor","humour","mahatma-ghandi","mandela","mercy","mother-teresa","nelson-mandela","philosopher","philosophy","satire","selfishness","selflessness","social-criticism","sympathy","teresa","unselfishness"],"id":86433,"author_id":"Mokokoma+Mokhonoana"},{"text":"We are, or rather our natural desire to evade pain and to attain pleasure is, the primary reason we do or say every single thing we do or say.","author":"Mokokoma Mokhonoana","tags":["altruism","charity","compassion","empathy","gene","genes","genie","ghandi","humanity","humor","humour","mahatma-ghandi","mandela","mercy","mother-teresa","motivation","motive","motives","nelson-mandela","pain","philosopher","philosophy","pleasure","satire","satirist","selfish","selfishness","selfless","selflessness","social-criticism","sympathy","teresa","unselfish","unselfishness"],"id":93420,"author_id":"Mokokoma+Mokhonoana"},{"text":"In some cases, it is the woman’s stomach—not her heart—that has left her man for another.","author":"Mokokoma Mokhonoana","tags":["altruism","breakup","breakups","charity","compassion","debt","divorce","empathy","fail","failure","feed","food","gene","genes","genie","ghandi","heart","hearts","humanity","humor","humour","job","kitchen","loss","love","lover","lovers","mahatma-ghandi","man","mandela","marriage","men","mercy","mortgage","mother-teresa","nelson-mandela","nutrition","occupation","partner","partners","philosopher","philosophy","poverty","rent","rental","romance","satire","satirist","security","selfish","selfishness","selfless","selflessness","social-criticism","spouse","spouses","starvation","stomach","sympathy","teresa","tummy","unemployment","unselfish","unselfishness","woman","women"],"id":115241,"author_id":"Mokokoma+Mokhonoana"},{"text":"It is humanly impossible to be selfless. As a matter of fact, human beings are inherently selfish.","author":"Mokokoma Mokhonoana","tags":["altruism","charity","compassion","empathy","gene","genes","genie","ghandi","humanity","humor","humour","impossibility","impossible","mahatma-ghandi","mandela","mercy","mother-teresa","nelson-mandela","philosopher","philosophy","satire","satirist","selfish","selfishness","selfless","selflessness","social-criticism","sympathy","teresa","unselfish","unselfishness"],"id":119523,"author_id":"Mokokoma+Mokhonoana"},{"text":"Does no one want to know the truth here, Mr. Archer? The real loneliness is living among all these kind of people who only ask one to pretend!","author":"Edith Wharton","tags":["ellen-olenska","hypocrisy","new-york","pulitzer-prize","social-criticism"],"id":137057,"author_id":"Edith+Wharton"},{"text":"Almost everything we call 'higher culture' is based on the spiritualization of cruelty.","author":"Friedrich Nietzsche","tags":["aphorism","philosophy","social-criticism"],"id":139524,"author_id":"Friedrich+Nietzsche"},{"text":"Indeed, bribery, favoritism, and corruption in a great variety of forms were rampant not only in politics, but in all levels of society.","author":"David McCullough","tags":["politics","social-criticism"],"id":142838,"author_id":"David+McCullough"},{"text":"No single bad person regards themselves as a bad person.","author":"Mokokoma Mokhonoana","tags":["altruism","bad","charity","compassion","empathy","gene","genes","genie","ghandi","good","humanity","humor","humour","mahatma-ghandi","mandela","mercy","mother-teresa","nelson-mandela","philosopher","philosophy","satire","selfishness","selflessness","social-criticism","sympathy","teresa","unselfishness"],"id":153429,"author_id":"Mokokoma+Mokhonoana"},{"text":"We are, in fact, a nation of evangelists; every third American devotes himself to improving and lifting up his fellow-citizens, usually by force; the messianic delusion is our national disease.","author":"H.L. Mencken","tags":["america","philosophy","social-criticism"],"id":161421,"author_id":"H.L.+Mencken"}],"pagination":{"page":1,"page_size":10,"total":23,"pages":3,"next":"?page=2\u0026page_size=10"}}